In a manner known in itself, each flight of an aircraft is done according to a flight plan in particular including a plurality of planned positions of the aircraft during this flight. These positions in particular correspond to predetermined waypoints. Each position represents multiple piloting parameters, for example two-dimensional geographical parameters in various planes of reference, geographical or altimetric parameters relative to the height or altitude of the aircraft, time parameters or speed parameters in various planes of reference.
“Aircraft” refers to a moving vehicle piloted by at least one pilot, and in particular able to fly in the Earth's atmosphere, such as an airplane, helicopter or drone. The pilot uses piloting commands to pilot the aircraft from a cockpit of the aircraft or remotely, from any other appropriate piloting center.
The flight plan is determined before the aircraft's departure and is generally filed with the appropriate authorities.
The flight plan may also undergo changes during the flight. These changes are, for example, caused by changes in weather conditions, air traffic changes or any other type of environmental changes, and are sent to the pilot in the form of instructions from the ground.
The instructions issued by an air traffic controller are said to be of the ATC (Air Traffic Control) type.
The air traffic controller sends the pilot the ATC instructions either through a voice connection implemented by radio communication means, or through a data connection making it possible to send messages retrievable in text form.
The latter type of connection is also referred to as a datalink.
Upon receiving such an instruction, the pilot must in particular verify the compatibility of the instruction with the operating capabilities of the aircraft and any restrictions imposed by the current flight plan of the aircraft.
Thus for example, these restrictions relate to the passage altitude at least at certain waypoints or the passage speed at these waypoints.
Regarding the operational capabilities, the pilot must in particular ensure that the aircraft is able to carry out a corresponding piloting command to comply with the transmitted instruction. These capabilities for example depend on the current weight of the aircraft, its maximum flight altitude, the available fuel, etc.
The pilot determines the consequences that applying this instruction may have on the current flight plan. These consequences generally relate to parameters associated with the flight plan, such as the flight time to a given waypoint, the quantity of fuel available at such a point, etc.
If the instruction is compatible, the pilot confirms to the air traffic controller that the instruction is taken into account and changes the current flight plan based on this instruction.
One can then see that these operations require interpretation, calculations and both manual and mental actions by the pilot. These actions are also a considerable source of errors.
To offset these drawbacks, in the state of the art, systems already exist for processing at least some instructions sent by air traffic control. Thus, for example, these systems can be associated with a computer of the FMS (Flight Management System) type, which incorporates the instructions received in the current flight plan into the aid provided to the pilot.
However, these systems are not completely satisfactory. In particular, they do not make it possible to exempt the pilot from any manual and/or mental activity necessary to apply the transmitted instructions.